Michael Siegrist (ETH Zurich)/Erb Colloquium

Symbolic Information Causes Biased Decisions

In assessing the outcomes of decisions, people often rely on the symbolic information while neglecting other crucial information. People may be especially prone to rely on this information on topics that are subject to social norms, such as environmentally friendly behavior, environmental risks or risks for humans. I present a series of experiments demonstrating how over-reliance on symbolic information leads consumers to biased decisions on energy consumption and sustainable food choice.

Michael Siegrist has been Professor of Consumer Behavior at ETH Zurich since April 2007. Michael Siegrist was born 1965 in Vordemwald. He studied psychology, economics and mass communication at the University of Zurich. He worked as a research assistant at the Psychology Department of the University of Zurich. In 1994 he wrote his dissertation at the University of Zurich. During 1997-1998 he worked as a Project Manager at the ZVSM (Zentralverband schweizerischer Milchproduzenten), Department of Marketing Research. During 1998-2000 he was a visiting researcher at Western Washington University, WA, USA (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation). He returned back to the University of Zurich, and worked as a senior researcher. He was the principal investigator of several projects examining lay people’s risk perception. In 2001 he completed his ‘Habilitation’ at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zurich. Starting from 2004 he was also involved in research and teaching activities at ETH Zurich.

The research focus of Michael Siegrist is on risk perception, risk communication, acceptance of new technologies, and decision making under uncertainty. He is especially interested in food and consumer behavior.